[uf-discuss] Formatting arbitrary dates, not part of hCalendar

[Paul Wilkins]

From: "James Craig" <jcraig at apple.com>
>> While it specifies the time of insertion or deletion, the semantics  of 
>> that don't match up with what we're wanting to do here.
>
> Unless you and Bob are working on that project together, the  semantics of 
> the use can only be determined by Bob.

The semantics of proper use have already been determined. Would you use 
tables to markup the layout of a webpage, or blockquote to indent text? 
Using ins or del to markup when their content changed (and possibly from 
what) is a similar issue.

>> The INS and DEL elements are supposed to markup changes to the  document
>
> Yes, and the line in question referred to a specific date when that  copy 
> was inserted OR when that line of text became relevant due to  the release 
> of the new version of software.

So it's not the date that's the relevant part, it's the software release 
instead.

> I disagree. By your logic, use of DL as a data structure in XOXO  would 
> also be a misuse because it's key:value data pairs instead of  an actual 
> definition term and description.

That falls within the defined use of the element as it doesnt have to be 
term and description. It can also be for marking up dialogues, along with 
other similar applications.

> I'll save the list the  semantics argument, but I believe this is well 
> within the proper use  of INS.


To use INS just to provide a machine-friendly translation of a date/time, 
that's a no-no.

In the context of what's going on here, as it's not the date that's changed 
but the version of the software itself, marking up the date isn't the right 
approach here. The software release itself should be marked up instead.

The best possible markup for using INS in this case would be
Use <ins datetime="2007-03-05" cite="version-7.0.1.zip" 
title="bugfix">version 7.0.2</ins> from 5 March 2007

-- 
Paul Wilkins